Monsters & Fairytales (56 page)

“Why shouldn’t it be?”

“Because it’s the fate of humankind.
You are aware if you stay here, they cannot be saved.”

“The sacrifice?”
Loki said.

He shifted his weight as if to not claim the words he just spoke, intentionally avoiding eye contact as well.

The repercussions could come later; I was exhausted of this inferiority being placed upon me.

“
A single human has never faced the Zahn before and lived through it. We are not even sure how it all works ourselves, but you would be giving yourself up for them.” Loki answered as if to take back my thoughts
.

“She is strong.” Carlyle said. I was disgusted by him.

“Strength isn’t enough.” The Minakai said back.

“If love and strength aren’t enough, what is? Is your kind really that dependent on lies and trickery that you know nothing else?” I asked.

“Now you’re thinking the way you should be. Mirabelle, our kind has been appointed by the hands of God himself to watch over his creations, the humans. You can be quite overwhelming.” He paused to chuckle. “We have to keep it pure, though. When you lose sight of your purpose, when life no longer makes sense, it is our job to rebuild it. We find the souls that haven’t lost their way, and give them their choices.”

“I’m one of those souls?”

“Mirabelle, you have a choice before you.” Joe, or Carlyle, or whoever he was, interrupted the Minakai. Porter looked like he was going to mutilate Carlyle if he did it again.

I watched him walk over to me and try to grab my hand. I snatched it away and took a step back.

“Don’t.” I threatened.

“Mirabelle.”
Sebastian cooed behind his brother.

“I’m mad at you, too.” I assured him.

“You have every right to be.” He assured me.

“That doesn’t help.”

“I know.
He was there to watch over you. He was the one who thought you were good enough. I’ll tell you why I came back though
.”

He stepped in front of Carlyle and tried to touch me. I didn’t let him, either.

“Go on.” I said in a monotone voice.

I took a seat, finally, and pulled my knees into my chest. It felt safer that way. My heart was protected.
Fidgeting with my socks, carefully I watched him. He knelt down so he could be eye level with me. Carlyle was hovering over his right shoulder.

“Okay
, so, we all understand that Carlyle was sent to gather the information on the humans and find the ones worth saving. I know I told you we were assigned to a single person, but that was just an excuse to be close to you
.” He smirked.

“
You told me a lot of things
.” I said.

I tried my best not to
smile, not for the stab I accomplished but for his attempt to flirt with me.

“
I couldn’t justify it. I’m sorry. Being there and watching you humans, I know I said this before, but you really are an awful breed. To take my order away, to defy my father, that was a pretty big blow to our race. We are bred to be who are and that is that. I couldn’t justify it any other way other than I just did it. Now I see the real reason was you. I wouldn’t have met you any other way
.

You were dying. You were so close to Carlyle that I took to you before the final second. It was enough time for him to tell me what he gathered. He told me you were the reason he had been gone for two years. Everything he had done, everything was part of greater plan. Getting the apartment next to you, working at the arcade was all a part of it too. Because he knew the role of humanity, he foresaw everything, but me. Because I gave it up, I became an unforeseen pawn in it.

Not only that, but you changed me. Something in you captivated me and I captivated you too. That was something no one could have anticipated. He didn’t believe me that you fell for me because he couldn’t see what that obstacle was. I was his blind spot. Not wanting to accept you could really love a creature, he had to test it. He was certain that would be the demise of it all. Even as much as I agreed that a human could never love a beast and come to our world, I couldn’t abandon you.”
He said.

“But, you did. You left me three times.” I said.

I couldn’t hold back anymore. A tear trickled down my cheek. His breath hit the trail giving me goose bumps. It dropped on my knee and I started at it, waiting to see which path it chose.

“They were all tests.”  Sebastian whimpered bringing my focus back to him.

I felt better knowing he was ashamed of the things he had done.

“Oh, right, I keep forgetting the way to test someone’s purity is by lying to them. Whew, glad my judgment wasn’t being tested.” I rolled my eyes.

“Your judgment did matter. You saw past him. You were capable of staying who you are. Why can’t you grasp that?” The Joe version of Carlyle said.

“I’m only human.” I sneered.

“Exactly!”
The Minakai stood up with his right hand in the air.

Puzzling looks spread across our faces. It was almost like he was a detective that had just solved the case. Realizing we had been sitting there for a few moments in complete statue form, I broke hold and leaned towards him.

“What?” I asked.

I waited for someone to say something.

“You
are
the only human.
The only one on Earth worth saving.”
The Minakai said.

“The only human.”
Joe confirmed.

“Please, can you just stay like Carlyle? It’s bad enough either way, but less so when you’re him.” I begged.

“Sorry.”

Fur folded over the fleshy human skin. It made a weird sound, almost like a zipper but almost like Velcro. When his body was black again, I felt my own body relax.

“Do you understand?” Loki broke the silence.

“No, no I don’t understand anything. You guys keep throwing around these words about fate of the humans, me being the savior, and honestly I have no more understanding than I did when I got here. How am I the only one? How is that possible? I can’t do this alone. I can’t even get through the day alone!”

I needed to walk away. I needed to breathe. I was so overwhelmed. I rushed past Sebastian and Carlyle and paced behind the couch. I wanted to cry, for some reason. My emotions were on
overload. Then I remembered I had already cried so much today. I had cried so much in this week, and month.
This whole year.
I was a mess. How could I be what’s left?

“
That is the point, Mirabelle. You are the only human, but you are not alone. When my son pulled himself from his destiny, he shifted everything. It granted you this option nobody before you has ever had. You can keep your life. You can be whatever you choose
.” Loki said.

“
You guys keep talking about all these options but not one of you has gone past the one where my body gets torn into hundreds of pieces by the Zahn. So, please,
for the love of God, can someone explain them to me?” I whimpered.

“Mira, if you stay on Earth, then the Zahn won’t extinguish you. You will watch all the life around you vanish until you are the only one. That’s when you can rebuild and start life over. If you stay here, the Zahn has to claim you. It will transform you into what you need to be to make humans understand their purpose.
             

“Now, with Sebastian, the Zahn may choose to keep you here. You have already started to turn into one of us, which is why I believe that is the choice the Zahn will choose for you. If you do this, you will be given a life here for all of eternity. Life on Earth would restart in its own natural way, but there is no certainty. We do not understand why God would choose this path, since what happened the first time, but He knows what He is doing.” Loki ended it all with a smile.

“Oh my.”

I felt faint again. He was lying. I had been here before. The Minakai had been sitting across from me. He had told me about the tribes, and about Sebastian and Carlyle.

“You wouldn’t let me leave. You were hoping for the Zahn to get me.” I whispered.

“Not necessarily.” The Minakai responded.

He didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that I was talking to him. 

“Yes! You kept pushing for me to stay. And those doors, you covered your mess up nicely.” I looked to Carlyle. “You were right. Every single one of you knew that I was going to have to face this. You knew that Sebastian was my true love; you knew that Carlyle was Joe, and you knew, well you don’t count, Loki.
But the rest of you!”

I glared at them. How dare they treat me like an idiot and drag me through all this knowing all along what I would be faced with.

“It’s not like that.” Sebastian mumbled across from me.

“Didn’t you hear your father?! The only way to save the humans is to die myself.”

“If you think they are worth it, of course. Why would you want to sacrifice yourself for people that don’t matter?” Sebastian asked.

“Because they all matter.
They all have lives and a family, who am I to say their life isn’t worth it? Who are you to say that I am?”

“Because you are, they aren’t. You have to stay focused. Do not lose sight out of guilt.” Loki pleaded.

“What do you know?! You
want me here with your son so his betrayal on you is justified. All of you are selfish and want this for your own gratification. And you call yourselves the superior race? You’re supposed to be the ones keeping us pure when you are not even pure yourself? I’m the only one who is seeing this for everyone. You are not true creatures of God
!” I yelled.

I was furious. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me
and I wanted to rip something apart
. I was ready to do whatever it took to defend my beliefs, so much so that I was glaring at them with a grin on my face.
             

I dared any of them to step up to me. I wanted them to see how serious I was. Hell, I didn’t care if they took it as far as fearing me. It was ridiculous for creatures of their size to fear me off of looks alone, but I had more than proven my emotions were tenfold to theirs. They couldn’t break me. I was better than that.
             

I looked at all of them taking in their emotions. They were watching me very cautiously, waiting for my next move. Invisible waves battled my stance. Was the Minakai testing me? I closed my eyes to focus. I could run away. They would never find me in this world now that my feelings weren’t pure anymore. I was safe. The Zahn would never catch me and humanity-

“Mirabelle.”
Sebastian pleaded, interrupting me.

“How dare you! I keep telling you, you are not ready, but you prove yourself like this? You know nothing about what’s ahead of you.” The Minakai roared.

He had been waiting for someone to speak. My feelings, my emotions were holding him at bay. How was that possible? As soon as Sebastian spoke and broke my concentration, it allowed him to sear through.

“And you do?” I asked.

“Yes! I am the leader. I have met the others. I have witnessed it all.” He said.

“Others?”

“Did you think this was the first time God has been disappointed in you creatures?”

“I just-”

“
You
were being selfish.”

He finished my sentence for me with a heart stopping glare. I went silent. I didn’t know what to do. They all seemed to ease off me, at least.

“What did they choose?” I asked, quietly.

The Minakai sighed. He was thinking about something. He did that a lot.

“B
efore you
was
just a man. He could hear God, but they could not. He felt so much sorrow for the humans and their lost hope, that he sacrificed himself in front of all of them. That created a wave of a second chance. This is the chance that you are still living in today.

“Before him was a family. God wasn’t so lost to humans back then and they listened to him directly. They were the only ones who saw the signs and prepared to stay on Earth. Their ways did not affect the others, and the Zahn wiped out the rest of mankind.
             

“
And the first pure humans of the world were a couple. They were so
innocent,
a voice from God was unheard of to them. We had to directly speak with them. When we brought them here, they knew they had to stay. They saw humanity was lost beyond their help. The Zahn claimed them and they set life in a new direction.”
The Minakai answered.

“You’re talking of Jesus,
Noah’s Ark, and the story of Adam and Eve, right?”

“You are aware of the Bible?” The Minakai asked. He was wide eyed.

“Um, no.
I’m Jewish. But everyone knows those stories. I even told them to Carlyle and Sebastian.” I said, trailing off at the last part.